1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wound healing, and particularly to a method and composition for tissue/cell repair in animals or humans that provides for administering a composition comprising hydrolyzed collagen as the basic ingredient to promote wound healing, bacteriostasis, and scar reduction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Just as nature has provided the skin as a barrier for protection, it has also provided mechanisms for skin repair. Depending upon the nature of the injury, this repair process may take hours, days, months, or even years. Many factors determine the length of time it takes for injured skin to heal. Pathogenic contaminants may enter the body through the wound until the skin's integrity is restored. For this reason, it is desirable to heal open wounds as quickly as possible.
Open wounds in the skin are a potential gateway for infectious or contaminating material to enter the body. The skin is a protective barrier to external contaminants. When the skin is damaged with an open breach, these contaminants are free to enter the body. Once inside the body, these contaminants may have effects of varying degrees, but almost always become more difficult to treat, and consequently slow the process of healing the original wound.
In order to fight infection, wound management traditionally involves an initial cleansing of the affected area to remove any contaminants, such as dirt, clothing particles, or other debris. Damaged tissue and foreign materials are removed when necessary, and antiseptic agents are applied to sterilize the injured area. Sterile dressings are often applied, and are periodically changed to keep the injured area as clean and sterile as possible. Complex biological mechanisms occur during the healing process, such as chemical signals attracting fibroblast cells to the wound site, which ultimately generate connective structures, mainly of collagen. Endothelial cells generate new blood capillaries that nurture the new growth. Cell growth continues until the open wound is filled by forming permanent new tissue.
Traditional methods of wound healing have disadvantages, such as incomplete pigment removal, non-selective tissue destruction, and unsatisfactory cosmetic results, such as atrophic or hypertrophic scarring.
Thus, a method and composition for tissue/cell repair solving these problems is desired.